Anything with chocolate and peanut butter has my vote (and my husband’s). While there are a lot of steps that go into making these, they really aren’t that difficult and the end result is totally worth it. After you bake the cookies, you can build them with the caramel, chocolate and peanuts with your kids – as long as they don;t taste test while we are assembling them. My husband helped me one time I made these but he ate the caramels as we were unwrapping them and I ended up not having enough for all the cookies.

 

Ingredients

COOKIE

1 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (fluffed, scooped and leveled)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

FILLING

15 chewy caramel candies, unwrapped (about 115 grams)

3 tablespoons milk

1/2 cup chocolate, chopped (about 75 grams)

1/4 cup finely chopped peanuts

 

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine peanut butter, butter, and sugars and beat with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy.

Add egg and vanilla and beat until combined.

Add flour, baking soda and salt and mix until combined — you may have to do this with a spoon or your hands.

Roll into 1″ balls and place about 2″ apart on baking sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes (I bake mine for 9) until puffed and dry looking on top. After removing from the oven, use the back of a ½ teaspoon measuring spoon to make an indent in the center of each cookie. Set aside to cool completely.

In a small pot, combine caramels and milk over low heat. Cook, stirring regularly, until melted and smooth. Spoon ½ teaspoon into the center of each cookie.

In another small pot, heat 1″ of water over medium heat until simmering. Place a glass bowl over top, ensuring that the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water (you are making a double boiler). Place chocolate in the glass bowl and heat, stirring constantly, until melted and smooth.

Pour chocolate into a plastic bag and snip one of the corners. Drizzle chocolate over cookies and immediately sprinkle with chopped peanuts.

Let set until chocolate is set before storing in an air tight container on the counter for 1 week or in the freezer for 3-4 months.

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Quick tip: You can switch out the chopped peanuts with chopped pecans for an equally tasty cookie!

Recipe and image courtesy of The Recipe Rebel.